Moving one step closer to Sen. John Thrasher becoming the school’s president, Florida State University trustees on Monday unanimously approved a proposed five-year contract with a base value of as much as $2.15 million.
Thrasher said last week he was “good” with the proposed deal. And university officials said Monday that Thrasher wasn’t difficult to work with in approving the deal, which would keep him below the top pay level among the state’s university leaders but would exceed the base pay of former Florida State President Eric Barron.
Trustees Chairman Allan Bense, a former state House speaker, said that compared to other contracts he’s negotiated, “this one was fairly easy.”
Bense and Thrasher, a St. Augustine Republican who has long been an influential figure in GOP politics, consider themselves friends.
Thrasher’s selection as the Tallahassee school’s next president still needs to be approved by the state university system’s Board of Governors. That panel will take up the selection during a meeting Nov. 5 and Nov. 6 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Only a few technical changes were made to the contract, which would have Thrasher starting in Tallahassee on Nov. 10, the Monday after the general election.
Thrasher is favored to win re-election to his Senate seat, and is expected to resign from the Legislature.
The move would require a special election to be called for the Senate District 6 seat, which includes St. Johns, Flagler and Putnam counties and part of Volusia County.
The five-year contract would include a $430,000-a-year base salary. Also, Thrasher would be required to reside in the fully staffed, university-owned President’s House; would receive $900 a month for car costs or an automobile fitted with an FSU license plate for his official use; would get a 15 percent annual contribution into a retirement plan; would get his annual dues covered for The Governors Club and University Center Club in Tallahassee; and would be eligible for an annual performance bonus of $100,000 for meeting goals.
The trustees also intend to grant Thrasher, who received his undergraduate and law degrees from the Tallahassee school, a tenured faculty appointment as a professor in the College of Law.
Funding for the contract will come from the school, the University Foundation, and the Seminole Boosters.
Car allowances, free presidential living quarters, club memberships and performance bonuses are among the standard fare at the state’s 12 public universities.
In terms of base pay, Thrasher would be about fifth among presidents in the state university system.
Florida International University President Mark Rosenberg has a base salary of $475,000 year, followed by Judy Genshaft, president at the University of South Florida, with a $470,000-a-year contract, and John Hitt, with a $463,000-a-year deal at the University of Central Florida.
Cornell University Provost Kent Fuchs, who was selected for the University of Florida top job last week, is expected to see a base salary that could approach $500,000.
Elmira Mangum, who was selected Florida A&M University president in January, received a base salary of $425,000.
Randy Avent received a contract with a $385,000-a-year base after being selected in June to be the first president at Florida Polytechnic University.
Florida Atlantic University President John Kelly, selected for the top job at the Boca Raton school in June, has a base of $400,000 a year.
Barron’s FSU contract had a base salary of $395,000 a year.
Thrasher’s contract comes as FSU publicly announced Friday that it is 60 percent completed in its goal to raise $1 billion by June 30, 2018.
The “Raise the Torch: The Campaign for Florida State,” started under Barron, has drawn $610 million in gift commitments, the university said in a release.